when me and a buddy were in RMNP in June the roads in all had these weird teepee shaped structures that we assumed were for controlling wildfires from spreading...they surrounded the edges of a lot of the roads, including the one into bear lake. I wonder if they didn't work, or if that's not even what they're meant for

when me and a buddy were in RMNP in June the roads in all had these weird teepee shaped structures that we assumed were for controlling wildfires from spreading...they surrounded the edges of a lot of the roads, including the one into bear lake. I wonder if they didn't work, or if that's not even what they're meant for

That's mitigation for the beetle kill trees. They've been doing that for a bit there. Amazing to see how many trees they've removed so far.

It's actually a huge problem world wide, with different species of bark beatles affecting the trees. The mountain bark beetle is causing havoc from New Mexico up to BC and I believe Alaska as well. Then there is the Southern bark beetle which..well, is in the Southeast. If you drove on I-70 past the tunnel when you were here, the massive amount of dead brown trees are all beetle kill.

It's supposed to be cyclical, but I believe this is the worst it's been and I've read that due to global warming they are reproducing twice a year. Additionaly the federal government has even providing funding to combat it as per the link below 29 million acres were affected in 2011.

Damn beetles...

If you're bored. It's actually interesting stuff when you live in these areas.

They've closed off the Fern Lake trailhead from the winter parking lot. Cub Lake trail is closed, Fern Lake trail / The Pool is closed. The area north of Odessa Lake is closed.

The smoke really seemed to be coming from the area near Rock of Ages / Jaws / Night of the Unicorn area. It was really thick up there Saturday. It made for weird lighting all the way back to McGraw Ranch / Cow Creek Canyon, and all of Estes Park.

They are not fighting it directly. They're down to local firefighters. My guess: it'll take winter setting in to completely extinguish it.